No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

The landmark No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in 2002 and commonly referred to as NCLB, holds schools and teachers accountable for student learning through a series of state-level standardized tests, goals, and sanctions for schools that miss those goals. It is a sweeping law that touches on everything from school discipline to military recruitment on high school campuses, but accountability is at the heart of NCLB.